“We are excited to honor both FJC and Reza,” said Joyce S. Dubensky, CEO of Tanenbaum. “all of Reza’s work, from his books, to his media efforts to his activism, share a theme. All inform, build bridges of respect and enable greater understanding of Islam and religious extremism.”

Far from being a “moderate,” Aslan is an Islamic supremacist who is a Board member of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). NIAC has been established in court as a front group for the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Aslan’s has tried to pass off Iran’s genocidally-minded President Ahmadinejad as a liberal reformer and has called on the U.S. Government to negotiate with Ahmadinejad himself, as well as with Hamas — that is, with two of the most barbaric, genocide-minded and murderous adherents of Sharia. Aslan has even praised the jihad terror group Hizballah as “the most dynamic political and social organization in Lebanon.”

Aslan wrote: “The Muslim Brotherhood will have a significant role to play in post-Mubarak Egypt. And that is good thing.” He has not revised this view despite the Muslim Brotherhood regime’s increasing authoritarianism and brutality toward its opponents, or its escalating persecution of Egyptian Christians.

The Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding is certainly building bridges. Unfortunately the people it is building bridges to have an unfortunate tendency to blow them up. But that is what comes of misunderstanding Islam; a problem that the Center for Interreligious Understanding suffers from.

So what will you miss out on if you don’t pony up the $50,000 to attend the 2013 Tanenbaum Awards?